2006 Tennessee Business Highlights
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HCA Inc. shareholders overwhelmingly approved a $21.3 billion leveraged buyout ? the second largest ever in the U.S. ? that will take the nation’s No. 1 for-profit hospital chain private.
? Nissan Motor Co. relocated its North American headquarters in California to Tennessee. The Japanese automaker moved to temporary offices in Nashville while a new building is constructed in the suburb of Franklin.
? Drugstore operator CVS Corp. announced it is buying pharmacy benefits manager Caremark Rx Inc. for about $21.2 billion in stock, creating a company that will have formidable power in negotiating lower prices with drug companies.
? International Paper Inc. initiated a restructuring plan to shed billions of dollars in assets by selling forestland and closing mills, using the proceeds to reduce debt and tighten financial operations. Part of the restructuring plan has included a move from Stamford, Conn., to headquarters in Memphis.
? A series of buyouts and early retirements this year have trimmed General Motor Corp.’s Saturn plant work force in Spring Hill from 5,700, to about 3,700. GM also said it planned to shut down a production line at Spring Hill in March 2007, when the plant will quit making the Saturn Ion and Vue models.
? ServiceMaster Co., a Fortune 500 company that provides housecleaning, pest control and landscaping services, announced it will relocate its headquarters from Illinois to Memphis. The company now has 165 executives at its headquarters in Downer’s Grove, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. About 2,400 people work for the company in Memphis, where all of its divisions are based.
? The 15-month-old mechanics strike against Northwest Airlines Corp. ended in November, with union approval of a new contract that won’t restore most of the strikers lost jobs. The strike by 1,600 mechanics ceased to have a visible effect on Northwest, which hired permanent replacement workers and outside contractors to replace the mechanics at its hub operations in Minneapolis, Detroit and Memphis.
? Truck maker Paccar Inc. announced it’s eliminating one shift at its Peterbilt Motors Co. plant in Madison, with close to 667 of 1,200 workers projected to be laid off.
? Vacuum cleaner maker Oreck Corp. said it will close its manufacturing plant on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, moving the jobs north to the company’s operation in Cookeville. The 450 jobs in Long Beach, Miss., will be eliminated between February and October 2007.
? About 180 machinists at a Boeing Co. airliner components factory in Oak Ridge are slated to be laid off as part of a new three-year contract ratified by union workers in November.